The Trail Smoke Eaters went to overtime for the third straight game, but ended up on the losing side of a 4-3 contest against the Penticton Vees on Saturday.
Trail led 3-2 late in the third period at the South Okanagan Event Centre in Penticton until a James Miller point blast tied the game with 1:38 remaining to force the 3-on-3 overtime period.
The Smokies came close to winning it in OT when Jeremy Smith was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked on a breakaway, but Vees goalie Derek Krall stymied Smith and the Smokies extra point.
Moments later, Trail broke into the Vees zone on a 2-on-1 rush, but Krall made an awkward save with the right pad while sliding to his left, and the play went the other way. Vees’ forward David Silye sent a breakaway pass to Ryan Sandelin, who slipped the puck between the pads of Smokies goalie Adam Marcoux with one minute to play for the 4-3 victory.
The disappointing loss comes just 24 hours after falling 2-1 in a shootout to the Coquitlam Express on Friday at the Cominco Arena.
“We played pretty well in Penticton,” said Smoke Eaters forward Carter Jones. “Stealing a point in Penticton is big too. We would have liked two, but we played the right way, we played well, but we just couldn’t get the win.”
Silye opened the scoring for the Vees midway through the first period, batting a puck out of mid-air and past Marcoux for a 1-0 lead.
Trail tied the game on a power play goal just 22 seconds into the middle stanza, on a low wrist shot from Smokies defenceman Trevor Zins. The goal is Zins sixth of the season, giving the St. Michael, Minn. product 17 points on the year, good for eighth among league defencemen.
The Vees Eric Linell restored the lead with five minutes to play in the second, tipping a Miller point shot through the legs of the Smokies goalie, as Penticton held a 16-15 shot advantage through two periods.
Trail rallied in the third. Owen Ozar tallied his fourth on a goalmouth scramble at the 14 minute mark, and Spencer McLean finished a quick give and go with Jeremy Smith, firing in his first goal of the season over the blocker of Krall for Trail’s first lead of the game. McLean was out with injury for the first two months of the season, and played in just his seventh game this year.
“That was awesome, I always love seeing Spenny score and do well, because he just works so hard and he deserves everything he gets,” said Jones. “So it was good to see him score that goal in Penticton.”
The 3-2 lead, however, was erased on Miller’s blast from the point, and ultimately decided by Sandelin in the extra frame.
Penticton outshot Trail 24-22 with each team scoring once on five power-play opportunities.
Sandelin earned first star, Miller second star, and Smokies’ Mclean was the game’s third star.
In Friday’s defensive battle against Coquitlam, a 1-1 game had to go to a shootout before the Express decided it and won the match 2-1.
“We played okay against Coquitlam and same thing, went to OT, could have went either way, and we just didn’t get the bounces and didn’t go in our favour,” added Jones.
Joshua Wildauer tallied his 10th of the season with 1:45 remaining in the first period to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Trail came out with some jump in the second. Mack Byers gathered up a Jones’ rebound and beat Express netminder Kolby Matthews on the blocker side for his sixth tally of the season and a 1-1 tie at 14:01.
The Smoke Eaters killed off a five-minute penalty late in the second period, and Jones came close to scoring the game winner in the third when his shot from the slot beat Matthews glove side but rang off the post to keep the match deadlocked.
After nothing was decided in the 3-on-3 OT, Kent Johnson scored in the shootout for the Smoke Eaters, but Chase Danol and Hunter Alden replied for the Express for their 15th win of the season.
Coquitlam outshot Trail 23-21 and went 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the PK.
Trail has just one win in their last 11 games, yet has earned points in three of those losses. Their only win in seven overtime games this season came on Nov. 4 in a 4-3 shootout victory over Surrey Eagles.
“Our coach, Jeff, keeps telling us to trust the process,” said Jones. “We’re playing well, all these games are going into OT we just can’t get the second point. It’s really frustrating. I mean 5-on-5 we’re playing well, we just have to have that desperation, that killer instinct to get ahead, quit having these games go to OT, and win in regulation.”
Trail plays the Vernon Vipers on Wednesday night at the Cominco Arena with the puck drop at 7 p.m.